Streat and Westmeston Over 40s

Match Report

On a glorious mid-September afternoon, we locked horns once again with our friends at Streat & Westmeston. A beautiful ground set in Middleton Manor at the foot of the South Downs.

The Sussex Martlets won the toss and elected to bat and with a combination of accurate Streat bowling and poor shot selection, the Martlets surreally found themselves at 28 for 7! Fortunately, Phil Savage (26) and Jeremy McGann (25) stemmed the flow of wickets with their partnership of over 50, to be followed with an equally fine partnership from Paul Lack (9) and Malik (23). Finally, we managed to achieve a below par total of 117 in our 35 allotted overs.

A short tea was taken and Streat & Westmeston set about their innings but after a fine opening spell of bowling from Peter Fielding, (7 overs for 7 runs), and Paul Lack (7 overs for 23 runs), at the halfway point Streat & Westmeston only had 33 runs on the board. We pushed them to the final over but despite our valiant efforts they reached our total to claim a deserved victory and level this season’s rubber 1 – 1.

As with tradition with this fixture, most of the Martlets then went for a pint and a curry in Hurstpierpoint and everyone was looking forward to the decider next year!

All in all, in these Covid times, it has been a great season and with talk of a possible tour next year and an Over 40s ‘Hackers Only’ Golf afternoon, there are many things to look forward to in 2021.